BTO’s Wisconsin Postgame Report

[NCVolintheTriad]

Not quite wire to wire-Wisconsin led once at 31-30- but who I to quibble?

 

[cncchris33]

Not quite wire to wire-Wisconsin led once at 31-30- but who I to quibble?

They didn't, though. Dalton Knecht was incorrectly awarded only 2 points on a 3-pt shot to give Tennessee its 30, so Tennessee actually had 31 at that time. It just wasn't corrected for a couple minutes during a TO.

 

[The Dog]

Estrella also missed time with the broken finger, so he's not seen as much court time in addition to things you mentioned.

Phillips has a tinge of Fulkerson to his game. A really good athlete in a big body.

Yeah, Cade reminds me a lot of Fulk, but even more athletic, thicker body-wise and not as clumsy. Seemed like the bigger bodies would throw Fulk around and he would end up on the ground. Hell, we even run the same in-bounds play ally-oop for Cade as we did for Fulk

 

[THEONLYTENISEE]

1. What a win, wire to wire lead, on the road against a fringe Top 25 team…those aren’t easy to get, especially early in the year and that is really going to pay dividends come March imo, that should look really good on the resume. Have to think playing that exhibition at Michigan State probably helped the guys a bit in this one.

2. Dalton Knecht continues to really impress, so far he has been the exact player we all were hoping he would be and Barnes appears to see it as well, and even though he’s not the best defender in the world Barnes realizing he has to be on the court is nice to see. Since the Grant/Admiral years it’s felt like we haven’t had someone you can go to late when you need a bucket, we just went straight ISO with him a few times late and got everyone out of his way and let him work, that’s a nice luxury to have.

3. We got our first glimpse of what the rotation is likely gonna look like, no real huge surprises except for Dilione, he appears to likely be the 9th or 10th man and that’s not what anyone expected coming into the year. Not a knock on him, if anything it’s a testament to just how deep and talented this team is, especially on the perimeter.

4. Won’t draw any final conclusions 2 games in, but given the exhibitions overseas, the exhibitions on the schedule and now 2 games that count, this offense appears to be legit. We are now up to #21 offensively on KenPom after starting the year at 33 iirc. This is also without Vescovi having hit a 3 yet this year, which is definitely not something I expected to see. We do need to get him going to reach our ceiling, I’m sure it’s an adjustment for him with Knecht & Gainey getting a lot of looks, but to his credit he doesn’t seem the least bit bothered, just need him to find that niche and some aggression, he starts hitting a few 3’s a game and this offense looks even more lethal.

5. Knecht is getting lots of love, and absolutely deserving, but JJJ is off to a phenomenal start to the year and I hope on everything it continues for him. He’s fully bought into his role and he’s excelling at it right now, he had another super efficient night last night, and as always was a great defender for us and did all of the little things. Obviously small sample size but 2 games in and he’s averaging 13 & 7 while only taking 7.5 shots a game, he’s been REALLY good in his new role.

6. This was one of those toss up games early, you win it and getting to 23+ wins gets easier, you lose it and getting there isn’t impossible but the margin for era is definitely thinner. Great road win which again will look great come March, we come home for what should be a pretty easy game against Wofford and then off to Maui where we should get another great look at what this team can do as they should get a couple of great opponents.



GBO!!!

What’s your early guess on the rotation?

 

[Willy14]

Yeah, Cade reminds me a lot of Fulk, but even more athletic, thicker body-wise and not as clumsy. Seemed like the bigger bodies would throw Fulk around and he would end up on the ground. Hell, we even run the same in-bounds play ally-oop for Cade as we did for Fulk

Cade is the biggest surprise for me for this team early. He was supposed to redshirt and I see now why he isn’t redshirting because he will definitely help us this year. He had really good minutes last night

 

[therickbol]

Absolutely agree. I know he's better than what we've seen, especially offensively. I think he knows minutes are scarce and he's pressing to make something happen in his limited time. That is simply youthful exuberance. He will have to learn that Barnes is more concerned about him fitting into the role he's being asked to play and less about the splash play that shows up in the postgame highlights. The gambling on defense won't be tolerated for too long.

That is spot on. I know it's easiest for us to see and say than it is for a young player to see. But the reality is to earn more minutes what he needs to do is simply be a cog in the wheel and not get in the way of his talent teammates on offense. Take the easy ones that come to him because the defense is focused on everyone else. And lock in 100% with his responsibilities on defense. But when you are young, you head tells you that you will earn more minutes of you go out there and prove the "big" things to the coaches. Score and be a playmaker every time you get the ball. He has plenty of time to figure it out.

 

[cncchris33]

That is spot on. I know it's easiest for us to see and say than it is for a young player to see. But the reality is to earn more minutes what he needs to do is simply be a cog in the wheel and not get in the way of his talent teammates on offense. Take the easy ones that come to him because the defense is focused on everyone else. And lock in 100% with his responsibilities on defense. But when you are young, you head tells you that you will earn more minutes of you go out there and prove the "big" things to the coaches. Score and be a playmaker every time you get the ball. He has plenty of time to figure it out.

Exactly.

 

[i2amavol]

They didn't, though. Dalton Knecht was incorrectly awarded only 2 points on a 3-pt shot to give Tennessee its 30, so Tennessee actually had 31 at that time. It just wasn't corrected for a couple minutes during a TO.

I wondered about that. I never noticed that it got changed.

 

[cncchris33]

I wondered about that. I never noticed that it got changed.

Yeah, unofficially, Wisconsin led for a short time, but once the score was corrected, officially, Wisconsin never led.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

UT led for 36 minutes. The game was tied for 4 minutes. There were zero lead changes.

 

[NighthawkVol]

The JJJ haters certainly are noticeably absent.

I am surprised at how bad of a defender Dilione is, and I think that is likely what is keeping him off the floor along with a lack of experience relative to the guys playing ahead of him. His guy gets past him way too much and he likes to gamble on defense. Barnes isn't going to go for that.

He’s also been a bad ball handler so far, which is surprising. But he’ll improve as the year goes on.

That’s the encouraging thing: so many guys aren’t really there yet. ZZ is still obviously rusty. Santi is working into his role. Knecht will get better on defense. We were sloppy with the bell at times. We had lapses on defense at times.

These are things that will all get better as the season wears on. But in spite of them, Tennessee never trailed on the road against a top 30 team and won by 10.

 

[wtmvol]

I can’t remember the last time Barnes had a guy he allowed to just ISO late in the game and takeover. o go ahead and make a prediction now, we see Dalton score 40 in a game this year. He’s a first round talent.

Kennedy Chandler is the only one I can think of in the last 4 years.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

Yeah, unofficially, Wisconsin led for a short time, but once the score was corrected, officially, Wisconsin never led.

Of course Kesling never mentioned it.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Of course Kesling never mentioned it.

Kesling wasn’t even giving how much time was left in the final minute. Also his tone doesn’t change if UT is doing well or if the opponent is doing well. Thank god for Bertelkamp - there’s no doubt when UT does something good with BB.

 

[orangemadam]

In two pages of comments, I think every player was mentioned, mostly positively.

I'm throwing in Mashack now. He has done an admirable job at the pg position
and has been very capable on the defense. When ZZ gets back into his 25-30 minute
range, I wonder what coach will do regarding Mashack? When Vescovi gets into
his normal range, he probably won't get reduced minutes and it'll be hard for Knecht
and Gainey to get fewer minutes.

 

[ColinS]

In two pages of comments, I think every player was mentioned, mostly positively.

I'm throwing in Mashack now. He has done an admirable job at the pg position
and has been very capable on the defense. When ZZ gets back into his 25-30 minute
range, I wonder what coach will do regarding Mashack? When Vescovi gets into
his normal range, he probably won't get reduced minutes and it'll be hard for Knecht
and Gainey to get fewer minutes.

This can and will change. Guys will get hot and they will slump. Mashack seems like a potential odd man out at the moment but he was playing as well or better than anyone at the end of last season. Having too many good players is a good problem to have.

 

[NighthawkVol]

One thing I don’t think was mentioned…JJJ driving to the basket. That’s been a knock on his game for years. He had two strong, successful drives to the hoop that I recall, drawing fouls on both and scoring on one. If that continues, that’s huge for this team.

 

[walkenvol]

Cade is the biggest surprise for me for this team early. He was supposed to redshirt and I see now why he isn’t redshirting because he will definitely help us this year. He had really good minutes last night

Gainey is my biggest surprise. I was thinking he was pwo level and only coming here because of dad - I couldn’t have been more wrong! FD is my second biggest surprise but in a negative way. He’s been touted as a potential 1&done type but so far he has not impressed me with either his performance nor his potential. Hopefully that means he will take a huge leap forward throughout this season. CP has shown way more potential than advertised and if he stays healthy, he may end up being a solid 2-3 year starter.

 

[turbovol]

Gainey is my biggest surprise. I was thinking he was pwo level and only coming here because of dad - I couldn’t have been more wrong! FD is my second biggest surprise but in a negative way. He’s been touted as a potential 1&done type but so far he has not impressed me with either his performance nor his potential. Hopefully that means he will take a huge leap forward throughout this season. CP has shown way more potential than advertised and if he stays healthy, he may end up being a solid 2-3 year starter.

I actually think Gainey could be our best point guard. He's a good defender--super-quick--and he's got offensive talent. Ziggy might be the better assist guy, but his (lack of) size is an issue, IMO, and while he's good at beating his mark off the dribble, it often results at him being inside and surrounded by defenders and in a bit of trouble. We've got a lot of good options at guard. We need to really to keep working at whatever offensive potential our bigs have.

 

[Volfan1000]

1. What a win, wire to wire lead, on the road against a fringe Top 25 team…those aren’t easy to get, especially early in the year and that is really going to pay dividends come March imo, that should look really good on the resume. Have to think playing that exhibition at Michigan State probably helped the guys a bit in this one.

2. Dalton Knecht continues to really impress, so far he has been the exact player we all were hoping he would be and Barnes appears to see it as well, and even though he’s not the best defender in the world Barnes realizing he has to be on the court is nice to see. Since the Grant/Admiral years it’s felt like we haven’t had someone you can go to late when you need a bucket, we just went straight ISO with him a few times late and got everyone out of his way and let him work, that’s a nice luxury to have.

3. We got our first glimpse of what the rotation is likely gonna look like, no real huge surprises except for Dilione, he appears to likely be the 9th or 10th man and that’s not what anyone expected coming into the year. Not a knock on him, if anything it’s a testament to just how deep and talented this team is, especially on the perimeter.

4. Won’t draw any final conclusions 2 games in, but given the exhibitions overseas, the exhibitions on the schedule and now 2 games that count, this offense appears to be legit. We are now up to #21 offensively on KenPom after starting the year at 33 iirc. This is also without Vescovi having hit a 3 yet this year, which is definitely not something I expected to see. We do need to get him going to reach our ceiling, I’m sure it’s an adjustment for him with Knecht & Gainey getting a lot of looks, but to his credit he doesn’t seem the least bit bothered, just need him to find that niche and some aggression, he starts hitting a few 3’s a game and this offense looks even more lethal.

5. Knecht is getting lots of love, and absolutely deserving, but JJJ is off to a phenomenal start to the year and I hope on everything it continues for him. He’s fully bought into his role and he’s excelling at it right now, he had another super efficient night last night, and as always was a great defender for us and did all of the little things. Obviously small sample size but 2 games in and he’s averaging 13 & 7 while only taking 7.5 shots a game, he’s been REALLY good in his new role.

6. This was one of those toss up games early, you win it and getting to 23+ wins gets easier, you lose it and getting there isn’t impossible but the margin for era is definitely thinner. Great road win which again will look great come March, we come home for what should be a pretty easy game against Wofford and then off to Maui where we should get another great look at what this team can do as they should get a couple of great opponents.



GBO!!!

Knecht is a scorer at all three levels and Aidoo is becoming a beast inside while Awaka just continues to do the dirty work in the minutes that he plays.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

One thing I don’t think was mentioned…JJJ driving to the basket. That’s been a knock on his game for years. He had two strong, successful drives to the hoop that I recall, drawing fouls on both and scoring on one. If that continues, that’s huge for this team.

It seems to me that the staff has pushed dang near every player to attack the rim, especially Awaka which is great. Love for Aidoo to follow that lead as well. THINK I heard that there was some new rules emphasis on the charge/block calls that make it tougher on the defense to establish position. FACTOR???

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Great points.

Dalton is a grown ass man, in more ways than one. He picked Tennessee because he knew he was lacking defensively and he knew that coming here to play for Barnes he would be held to a standard like no other in that area. Barnes will always push his players to be better and it's only going to benefit them if they buy in. Grant Williams wouldn't be in the NBA right now had he gone anywhere else for his 3 years of college ball. He could have and probably would have been able to replicate his production but he wouldn't have learned the things he did under Barnes.

JJJ is a great player, slumps happen and he's always carried the weight of being a 5 star and the expectation that those players are going to score 20 a night. As long as he plays his game and doesn't force the issue or worry about stats he'll have a great final season here, and he deserves it.

Santi's ability to drain 3s isn't going anywhere, we all know he can do it. In these first 2 games you've really seen an effort from him to drive and distribute more as well as continue to be arguably our best defender. Against Wisconsin him guarding Storr in the 2nd half changed things.

Awaka has it, just gotta get him to understand with his size that he has to play focused to avoid fouls. Especially easy to call dumb ones with those moving screens.

ZZ is forcing the issue, I'm amazed he's already back out there and doesn't seem to be playing timid or missing a step at all. But he more than Santi even has to learn how to fit into this new look team, cause Dalton and Gainey are the most polished scoring options we have and if someone has to take a bad look you'd rather one of them be the one doing it.

I like that even when Wisconsin went bigger Barnes didn't bite, he believes in the smaller guys to be able to play the 4 and he left them in there to figure it out. Loved that!

I'm excited to watch the youth get more confident, we didn't even see JP against the Badgers! You know he's going to be a factor once he gets the rebounding and defense going with his size and offensive talent.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

It seems to me that the staff has pushed dang near every player to attack the rim, especially Awaka which is great. Love for Aidoo to follow that lead as well. THINK I heard that there was some new rules emphasis on the charge/block calls that make it tougher on the defense to establish position. FACTOR???

Good point on the rule change. Several years ago Barnes started putting together his roster based on the new freedom of movement rule interpretation. Then it disappeared from being a point of emphasis. I guess Coach K/Duke and the other blue bloods didn’t like it since his roster was built to be physical.

 

[Extra Point]

Vescovi will get a good share of 3s. Once everyone focuses in on knecht and Gainey, as they should, vescovi will have less pressure and more open looks.

What we have this year, is what we did NOT have last year— substitutes where we don’t lose any quality. When ZZ went down last year, we were done. Not now! We can just keep playing at a high level. Knecht is the best in the country, but he also plays team basketball, which makes him better. This is a special team with a special season ahead!